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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN PSMTC 2017/07/17 2016-2018Committee on Public Safety and Mass Transit 3rd Session West Hawaii Civic Center 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Building A Kailua-Kona, Hawaii July 17, 2017 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Public Safety and Mass Transit ORDER: was called to order at 1:06 p.m., in the Council Chambers, Kailua-Kona, by Ms. Jennifer Ruggles, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Jennifer Ruggles, Chair Ms. Karen Eoff, Vice Chair Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Member (via videoconference from Hilo) Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member Mr. Dru Mamo Kanuha, Member Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member Ms. Eileen O'Hara, Member (via videoconference from Hilo) Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Member Absent & Excused: Ms. Valerie T. Poindexter, Member STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: The following individuals registered to speak in regards to Comm. 330 and came forward when called by the Chair: Alohalani Cermel, comment. Mathhew Vongogh, comment. Maria Gonzales, comment. Kimo Makaio, in support. Shelley S. Mahi-Hanai, in support. Abolghassem Abraham Sadegh, comment. Kat Culina, in support. PSMTC-3 July 17, 2017 COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. Comm. 330: REQUESTS A PRESENTATION BY CURTIS SHARP, TRANSIT CONSULTANT AND ANALYST FOR THE OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT, TO DISCUSS THE CURRENT STATUS OF PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION AND FUTURE NEEDS From Council Member Jennifer Ruggles, dated June 14, 2017 (Note: The title stated above is Mr. Sharp's correct title, which was incorrect on the agenda.) Motion to Close File: Ms. David moved to close file on Comm. 330. Seconded by Mr. Richards. CHR. RUGGLES: At this time, I'd like to call Mr. Sharp up. Thank you for being willing to get us up to date on this presentation, and I'm looking forward to hearing and seeing what your plan is. Correction to Oh, excuse me. I need to make a quick correction for the record. I just needed to Comm. 330: correct Communication 330. It says that Curtis Sharp is the Interim Administrator of Mass Transit Agency. Let the record show that he is the Transit Consultant and Analyst for the Office of Management. Okay, thank you. Okay, Mr. Sharp, you may proceed. (Note: At this time, Mr. Sharp provided a PowerPoint presentation to the members of the Committee. For viewing of the subject presentation, see the DVD copy of the meeting proceedings on file in the Clerk's Office. A copy of the PowerPoint presentation is made a part of the record, see Comm. 330.1.) MR. SHARP: Anyway, do you have any questions? I'm through. Did I make it, one hour? CHR. RUGGLES: Okay, great. MR. SHARP: One hour? CHR. RUGGLES: Yep, it's within the hour. Thank you. Do you have any questions for Mr. Sharp? MR. SHARP: Oh, please. CHR. RUGGLES: Ms. Lee Loy. Page 2 PSMTC-3 July 17, 2017 MR. SHARP: Give me a couple. MS. LEE LOY: Chair, just a simple request. I'm not sure how many others have questions, but I was hoping to take a short recess and then get into the questions, if that's okay with the others? CHR. RUGGLES: Okay, yes, we could take a five-minute recess. MR. SHARP: Okay. CHR. RUGGLES: Okay, sounds good. We're in recess. Recess: At 2:10 p.m., the Chair called for a recess. Reconvene: The meeting reconvened at 2:17 p.m. CHR. RUGGLES: Okay, good afternoon. We're going to call this meeting back to order. It's about 2:17. I think where we left off—Ms. Lee Loy, you have any questions for Mr. Sharp? Go ahead. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Mr. Sharp, for being here. As a Council, we're really focused on the budget and how much all of this will cost. MR. SHARP: Yeah. MS. LEE LOY: And so you've shared a lot of information, and so I'm going to try and focus the questions and the conversation in that direction. I just want to start, though, Mr. Sharp, you've been on contract, correct? MR. SHARP: Yes, yes. MS. LEE LOY: How many days are you in? MR. SHARP: It's up on the 28th of this month. I started on May 1't, 89 days. MS. LEE LOY: So you're about seven days, somewhat days, in? MR. SHARP: Right. MS. LEE LOY: Will that 89 -day contract be renewed? MR. SHARP: Not sure. I applied. I reapplied for the position. MS. LEE LOY: You reapplied for the 89 -day contract position or for the Page 3 PSMTC-3 July 17, 2017 MR. SHARP: No, I reapplied for the position of Mass Transit Administrator. MS. LEE LOY: Okay, so you're MR. SHARP: Oh, excuse me, not reapplied, I applied. MS. LEE LOY: You applied. Okay, so you're hoping to become the director, coordinator for Transit? MR. SHARP: Yeah. MS. LEE LOY: And this is kind of an overview of what you hope to achieve? MR. SHARP: What anybody in position would be able to achieve or should achieve, yeah. MS. LEE LOY: Okay. On page three of your PowerPoint presentation, there's a shortage of buses, current operational buses, 23. I know we're floating around 55 somewhat buses, but a number of them are out of commission for some shape or form. MR. SHARP: Yes. MS. LEE LOY: Over the last 70 somewhat days, you've also received a number of new buses. You mentioned a few from Oahu. MR. SHARP: Seven. MS. LEE LOY: Have you been able to increase the buses or operational buses in the last 70 days with what you stepped into and with the addition of the new buses? MR. SHARP: I've gotten the seven from Honolulu, and what we've been doing is ❑part of the fleet is made up of rentals, so we don't have the bus, we rent. MS. LEE LOY: Okay, I'm going to ask you to expand on that a little bit, because your PowerPoint mentioned you have 23 operational buses, and then during your presentation, we received seven more from Oahu. So have we increased the number of buses? MR. SHARP: No, I understand now what you're saying. We haven't put those out of the seven, two will immediately become back-up buses, five will go out on the road. As soon as we start putting those five out, that's five less that we have to rent. So, we're drawing back the money in terms of those rentals as soon as we Page 4 PSMTC-3 July 17, 2017 put out those buses. I would say over the next week or two, we should have those buses on the road. MS. LEE LOY: How many routes are we trying to manage in this entire transit system? MR. SHARP: Twenty-three. MS. LEE LOY: So a total of 23 routes? So barebones minimum is to have 23 operational buses with some back-up? MR. SHARP: Yes, but not to confuse things, I'm not sure it's 23. It could be more or it could be less, until we start really diving down there and looking at the routes themselves. MS. LEE LOY: Okay, then you shared a little bit about the maintenance schedule. Of the 23 buses, what is the ideal maintenance schedule that you're trying to get these buses on? Is it by mileage? Is it by weeks on the road? MR. SHARP: To begin with, it's by mileage. That's probably the simplest way for us to do that. Now, I say that because if you look at your own vehicles, your own trucks, et cetera, the service is based upon mileage. You go in for a 45,000 - mile check-up, and then that's tied to a maintenance schedule per the manufacturer. MS. LEE LOY: Okay, and then that maintenance schedule you mentioned would be three or four hours. I was listening. Is that enough time for a bus to be pulled off of the road to receive its maintenance, to be placed back on the road? MR. SHARP: Preventative maintenance. Once we get—I know I sort of rushed through this, but we will get it going. But the point is, that once the buses begin to get back into the shop on a consistent basis and they're attended to on a consistent basis, then they will have less opportunity to have problems on the road; and the only time they come back in again, is when it's the next check-up. That's what we're shooting for, and I'm not saying that's going to happen over the next six months. What we will do is get to a point where we, number one, we establish the process and we establish the routes; and then we establish a bare minimum of maintenance schedules, and we start expending that and working with it, yeah? MS. LEE LOY: Okay, thank you. So, assuming that's all in place—because every single member of this Council wants to know, how much is this going to cost? And you mentioned throughout your presentation, you don't know the cost. You have parts and parts supplies in inventory, but we don't know what those costs are; and those things are rather alarming to an agency that we are Page 5 PSMTC-3 July 17, 2017 supplementing to the tune of $14 million, seven from the General Fund and seven from our Mass Transit or our Highway Fund. Every single member on this Council is going to be held accountable to their constituents about that budget. That is the million -dollar question for me. I'm hoping my other Council Members agree, because we need to figure that out, and that's the type of information that would be helpful for us. There are other complaints that you're hearing from the constituents outside. That's a process issue. That's an administrative issue. For us on the County, or the Council, it's dollars. MR. SHARP: I understand that. MS. LEE LOY: And so we need that information. The sooner you get to it, the better for us, so we can actually plan. My follow-up question to that, is there an option for you to be generating revenues from this bus? Are you hoping to raise fees? Will you look at advertising on the buses? What's your plan to somehow supplement the cost of this program, that's not only dipping into our Highway Fund and our General Fund? MR. SHARP: Yeah, I've given generating additional revenue a great deal of thought, especially the advertising. In terms of what it's actually going to be costing—because I am a consultant, I wasn't involved with the budget. However, you don't have to be a consultant to see some of the costs that are involved. I make some assumptions by asking questions, yeah? Our biggest costs are spare parts. We're looking at $800,000 right there, a year, just on spare parts. Because in spare parts, they're very expensive. Buses: If we're looking at planning on buying buses, three or four buses, they're going to run, depending on the type of bus, $2 million, $2.5 million. We need to get to that. We need to step up to that very shortly, so that we start replacing our old fleet with something that's new. OPS equipment: $60,000, $70,000. This is just some of the notes that I've made for myself as well, right? Talking about GPS (Global Positioning System) units, CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) cameras, mobile applications, base yard security cameras, video screens, we're talking about $150,000 there, roughly. Operations: Route expansion, maintenance, fuel, admin. cost, equipment, hydraulic lifts, additional lifts, cleaning services, et cetera, that's $560,000 right there. Page 6 PSMTC-3 July 17, 2017 Resources: Potentially a shop foreman, someone that actually manages and oversees the entire shop itself. Quality Assurance: We need another mechanic. We need another one. A priority. We're talking $320,000, $330,000 there, roughly. That's what I'm MS. LEE LOY: Okay, I know I'm going to be running out of time, so I'm going to just ask two more questions, because you mentioned now the need for more individuals. You mentioned another mechanic, somebody to do inventory MR. SHARP: Mechanic is the primary one. The other ones—mechanic is the primary one. MS. LEE LOY: Okay, so at least you would be looking at one more? MR. SHARP: Mechanic. MS. LEE LOY: Mechanic. Okay, my final question is, and I'll yield to some of my other colleagues, have you considered having the Oahu transportation administration step in a little bit and get us up and off the ground? I mean, you've shared, just earlier, how you spent a number of weeks with their transit system and watching how they're running their program. MR. SHARP: We had those discussions. What they're doing is what I would normally do anyway. I'm a professional, but I need help. I can't do this all on my own; I can't do it. In my younger days, I would try and do it on my own, that's normal. But I talked with them too, and they're—I don't know if I should quote this, but they're willing to help out as long as we say we need help. MS. LEE LOY: I guess—and I know I'm going to be running out of time. I'm going to yield right now and see where the rest of my colleagues go with this conversation. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Sharp. MR. SHARP: Thank you. CHR. RUGGLES: Okay. Mr. Richards, did you want to ask questions? MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Mr. Sharp, for coming before us. As you know, this conversation about Mass Transit is a pressing thing for our County. Borrowing from the Mayor's statement, and I've said this numerous times before, one of the problems with the Big Island is it's big. And I can appreciate the fact that you're talking about our 55 buses, of which about half are working and covering our routes that we're trying to get done. Page 7 PSMTC-3 July 17, 2017 Recurrent themes that I've heard going through some of your statements, then public testimony, previous of going through the budget, hearings and all that, seem to have some, like I said, themes that keep coming up. Scheduling is a problem, maintenance is a problem, and this driver courtesy, for lack of a better term, has also been a haunting statement by some. First of all, let's talk about scheduling. Some of my constituency are bothered by the function of the bus and not being on time. I'm mindful of mass transit in other jurisdictions, where it's tight, it's real, real tight. In order to be reliableI think you made the comment, in order to have people rely on that mass transit to get to the doctor's office—we heard some testimony concerning people missing jobs because of not being able to be reliable on it. Then in your presentation, you touched on a deal with an app for, I guess, tracking the bus. I looked atHonolulu has a "Da Bus" app to find out—when it says a launch date in July, but I couldn't find one. I guess we haven't the app for our own service, as of yet. But some of the other concerns for the scheduling—and I can appreciate from the Mass Transit side, it's hard to schedule if your bus goes down and you don't have any redundancy, so I can appreciate that. Councilwoman Lee Loy's concern is how much is all this going to cost? As I recall, as we went through the whole budget process, the Mass Transit is heavily subsidized. I think there's about one-tenth of the budget comes from collection of fares and the rest is subsidized. It is a concern for our County, because, again, finance is always tight, and subsidizing something that has a lot of holes in it is a concern. I appreciate your maintenance program that you are attempting to put in place. Plan maintenance is, without question, very important, especially in older equipment. Classic example, Hertz or Avis, they run new equipment, so their maintenance costs are real low. It would be great to get to that at some point, but I can appreciate the cost of a new budget, excuse me, new buses. Some are around 500,000, 600,000, $700,000 each. So, expecting us to buy 50 brand new buses is not realistic, though it's something that we can strive towards. In your maintenance program, and Councilwoman Lee Loy posed a question, this would be based upon mileage, which makes all the sense in the world. I do like the concept of—the idea of having not one base yard but satellite base yards to take care of—getting something attended to, as simple as a flat tire. I mean, we shut down routes because we have a flat tire, which is problematic. The driver courtesy side, that's a resource management problem. That needs to be dealt with. MR. SHARP: It's a huge issue. I'm addressing that with the managers. Page 8 PSMTC-3 July 17, 2017 MR. RICHARDS: Okay, and I don't want to focus a lot on that, because that is a manager's kuleana, and you need to deal with that. But, coming back to the question. We have a potential of new buses. We have a potential of restructuring the whole Mass Transit. There's a lot of plans in place. There's a new base yard. What's the final bill that we potentially could be looking at to get this thing up and running well? Because just throwing moneyI was one of the guys that didn't want to just throw a lot of resources at something without a very conscientious and thoughtful program presented to us because throwing money at something makes us feel better. But if it doesn't fix the problem, we're wasting resources from the County. So, again, it comes back to the question, how much are we looking at? What's the plan? If it was the pie -in -the -sky wish list, what are we looking for to get this thing up and running? We've heard from our constituency, and I'm not talking District 9, I'm talking all of our constituencies, they want a good, solid program. What's it going to take, evaluating all the routes and then the equipment needs for those routes? I understand there's an ongoing process in place right now, or an ongoing study, right now, to evaluate all this stuff But the final thing comes to us. How much is it going to cost? So with that, Chairman, I'm going to yield on this until the next question. CHR. RUGGLES: Okay, thank you. Are there any other questions? Mr. Chung, in Hilo? MR. CHUNG: Thank you, Mr. Sharp, for coming here with your presentation this afternoon. You know, you spent some time on this handout introducing yourself. It says that you were an officer in the Marine Corp.; and I think at times it's good to have a military type of approach, a kick -ass approach when you're trying to change a culture. But what I'd like to know is, what is your background? What was your work background all of those years? MR. SHARP: A lot of it was logistics distribution, defining and building warehouses, running offices as a managing director, as a director for DHL, and then later on other companies. MR. CHUNG: Did you ever work in the area of mass transit, though? MR. SHARP: You know, I'm going to be very honest with you. I was waiting for that question. MR. CHUNG: I expect that. Thank you. Page 9 PSMTC-3 July 17, 2017 MR. SHARP: That question, I knew it was going to come up, and I'll answer it this way. I worked in mass transit, yes. Transporting people from Erbil, in Iraq, down to Baghdad in a bus, yeah. That's not considered mass transit in our terms, but I'm looking at laying down the infrastructure and the network, and getting the right people involved with managing a system that could take care of buses, airplanes, ships. Doesn't make any difference. It's just understanding what needs to be done with the different mode of transportation. MR. CHUNG: Okay. Well, thank you. You know, I'm going to reiterate a lot of what's been said by my two colleagues, Mr. Richards and Ms. Lee Loy. I don't— perhaps I shouldn't use the word concern, but I'm going to say it anyway. What concerns me is, you spent about an hour talking about the maintenance issues and logistics. I mean, really, that is your field of expertise, so I totally understand that. I expected you to say that actually, based on what you had said. But then, you spent all of about five minutes explaining the bus routes and things that were brought up by some of the citizens who spoke today: customer service, the bus routes, and also, tendentially, I guess it would be the cost after you determine what those bus routes would be. I think one of the failings of this system, in my humble opinion, is that historically our system has been driven by the hardware, by the buses, the bus systems, and it should be going the other way around, particularly in the rural areas, where the needs should be driving the hardware that we have. But you really—you just talked about it briefly. I think what we were expecting, well, what I expected anyway, was to have a better understanding of what those needs are for our communities. The rural communities and the urban communities have different needs all together, as you well know. But how all of those things meld into the bigger picture, that's what we wanted to see. We wanted to see a vision and for you to sell that vision. Of course, you've only been there for a few months and the scope of your consultant work may have hampered your ability to do something like that. But now I'm going to ask you a question. Again, you stated how this system has been in operation since, I think, 1978, and we've been going through all of these years—and you didn't want to put anybody down, but the fact is, this mass transit system is vitally important to improving the quality of life for our citizens. Vitally. And it's becoming more and more important every year. I think, obviously, systemically, this thing has some flaws. You know, you touched briefly upon this new administrator's job that is coming up. Now that job is a civil service job, pursuant to our Hawaii County Code. What are your thoughts on making that position an appointed position, nominated by the Mayor, Page 10 PSMTC-3 July 17, 2017 and confirmed by the Council like every other department head? Because this is a vitally important job. What's your thoughts on that? MR. SHARP: I don't know what to say. I think I would go with it, but that wouldn't be my decision. I've heard this brought up MR. CHUNG: Well, do you think it has been hampered by having it just be a civil service job all of these years? Because, personally, I have had great experiences dealing with appointed officials, because their jobs are somewhat dependent on cooperation with the Council. And I'm just wondering, given the importance of this job, whether you think we would get more results under that kind of arrangement, because we could easily change the Hawaii County Code. - don't see any enabling legislation from the State side that requires us to have it be in the civil service. We could change it just to make it more responsive to the needs of both the administration, the Council, and, consequently, the public. Any thoughts? MR. SHARP: Hmm, let's put it this way, sir. I like the idea for all the benefits that's derived from it, but I'm not in a position to make that decision. MR. CHUNG: Okay, okay. Well, that's something we have to think about from a policy standpoint. MR. SHARP: Yeah. MR. CHUNG: But, thank you. I mean, I just wanted to share those thoughts, anyway. But thank you for your time. MR. SHARP: Can I just say one thing before you? CHR. RUGGLES: Go for it. MR. SHARP: Sorry? CHR. RUGGLES: Go ahead. MR. SHARP: The routes, right? The reason I did not emphasize—and what I did emphasize, is that we've got somebody from the outside, a pretty good agency that's going to help us determine the routes. I've handled routes many, many times in the past working for DHL and working for other companies, so I do know what it's about. I just didn't feel it was right, at this point, to go into the detail about the routes. It is important and is on the top of the list to sort those out, because if the routes aren't sorted out, nothing else could sort it out. That's all I have to say. Page 11 PSMTC-3 July 17, 2017 CHR. RUGGLES: Okay, thanks. Ms. David. MS. DAVID: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Mr. Sharp. I do have a question on routes, though. As you know, my district is a huge, rural district from Volcano to South Kona. What I've been hearing—and I know you weren't prepared to talk about routes, but I really believe that routes are what, I think, people are actually interested in, because I don't think they really have concerns on how we maintain it. Well, our bus system, that's important too, but we need to get our people and the outskirts of our communities to the urban areas where they work. At this point in time, I think for many years it's been—they really had no choice. They either get up at 3 o'clock in the morning in order to get to Kailua at a decent hour to start work So in your Master Plan, on revamping this, our mass transit system, how many more meaningful routes will you be anticipating to increase in our rural areas so that people can NOT drive to work and actually catch the bus, whether it's an express bus for people that work at different hours? We have a lot of construction people that live out in Ocean View and K5'u that have to come to Kona. But like I said, it's really inconvenient and not practical to ride our bus system. I would like to catch the bus, but where the bus stops, I'd have to walls the rest of the way to the Civic Center. That might help me, but I'm not prepared to do that right now. So, I think that's very important in figuring out how to deal with this huge problem. Because I think the people, if they can see some improvement, and they can see and touch it, I think it doesn't matter how you get there. But, they can see a difference. I know, when you're talking about your fleet of buses, 55 is what we is the goal that we're shooting for. Right now, we have half of that, so already I'm thinking that if we get up to that point, we could certainly have more routes scattered throughout the rural areas that would make it meaningful. In that plan, how many buses are we contracting out to the independent contractors at this moment? Because with the tour contractors is that who we have? How many buses are those? I mean, would we be able to replace them entirely with our own fleet and save money that way? MR. SHARP: Okay, yeah, a lot of questions there. MS. DAVID: Sorry. MR. SHARP: No, no, no, no. MS. DAVID: Before I forget. Page 12 PSMTC-3 July 17, 2017 MR. SHARP: Yeah, they're all relevant questions. The first one I'll take because it's probably the easiest one. We have five, maybe six that we rent on a weekly basis. Hopefully, the five that we've got, that we're going to apply to the road from Honolulu, will take those places. So we are drawing back, clawing back some of the money that we're spending on that. That's the first thing. The second thing is in terms of the routes. I can't answer that, and there's a good reason for that. I'm not sure what condition those routes are in. I have to—we have to go—and the way that I've done this in the past, and this is working with DHL, routes were our bread and butter, pick-ups and deliveries, et cetera. When we had a problem with a route, we attacked the route one by one, by one, by one, and we looked at it from that standpoint. Invariably, what happens when you look at them singularly like that, you'll eventually see something that bleeds over. So, you got two routes that are servicing a number of customers. When you take a good look at that, you don't need that other van, or truck, or whatever it is that's going down the same route, so you're able to maximize the routes in that sense. That's what I want to do here as soon as possible, yeah. MS. DAVID: And that's what SSFM consultants are going to MR. SHARP: Is going to help us on. MS. DAVID: And they're a local company, so I am sure they're very familiar with the roads, yeah, with this island. Okay. MR. SHARP: And they're very good too. Very good too, yeah. Excuse me, just one more thing. MS. DAVID: Go ahead. MR. SHARP: They've got all—they've been helping us recently. They've got all the coordinates, and et cetera, of all our routes, right, so now they're taking a look. They have an application that helps them determine, like the best possible route from Hilo to Puna, for example, in a certain area of Puna. So they've got that kind of software, and they're helping us out on that, right. I'm hoping to get something that's kind of similar, but not as expensive that we can use as well. MS. DAVID: Okay, yeah. And I'd like to hear later, as more information—or hopefully before, when you do get the information about what we are looking at. You know? I think everybody's concerned with that, and I am also. I think for now, that was my only comments to make right now. Also, finally, the testifiers. I know you've heard them. Their concerns are very important as far as treatment on the bus by personnel. Page 13 PSMTC-3 July 17, 2017 MR. SHARP: I'm getting phone calls all the time. MS. DAVID: Yes, and so have I. MR. SHARP: 5:30 in the morning, too. MS. DAVID: Yes, that's very disturbing that we get that many calls about our transit. MR. SHARP: I don't accept it, but I do understand it. I'm going to start getting on the buses again, like I did a year and a half ago, and see what's going on. MS. DAVID: But, hopefully, if we transition to our own, entirely our own fleet, we would have more control over people's behaviors and how they interact with the community, because that's very important. MR. SHARP: That's another focus point too. MS. DAVID: Okay. Alright, I think I'll yield. Thank you very much. CHR. RUGGLES: Ms. O'Hara. MS. O'HARA: Thank you, Chair. Mr. Smart, thank you for the presentation. I said Sharp. Mr. Sharp, thank you for the presentation. When are you slated to move into this new facility? MR. SHARP: It's scheduled for the end of this month. MS. O'HARA: Is that going to happen on time? MR. SHARP: I hope so. MS. O'HARA: Okay, what would prevent it from happening on time? MR. SHARP: The follow-up of what needs to be done and the specs. MS. O'HARA: The follow-up, what? MR. SHARP: Well, what needs to be done. MS. O'HARA: What needs to be done? MR. SHARP: Now the whole area, it still hasn't been paved yet, so that all has to be done. Page 14 PSMTC-3 July 17, 2017 MS. O'HARA: So your pavement of a whole areaI don't know how large the area. By the end of the month? MR. SHARP: I would hope so, but there are some other things that they're working on too, like electricity, water, I believe, too. But electricity hasn't been turned on yet. MS. O'HARA: Okay, so then it's sounding less likely that that's going to happen by the end of July. It would be nice to know the pace at which we're moving forward. I was able to talk to Joanna Herkes, who's here from SSFM, and she and I spoke during the break. I understand they've been working for two years already on this Master Plan for Mass Transit for the County of Hawaii. Her principal investigator is not here right now, so it would be great to maybe touch base with SSFM and see where they're at with their efforts to come up with the master plan, because I have to agree with my colleague, Mr. Chung, in that the needs are what drive the future mass transit system that we put down here on the Big Island. Yes, cost is a factor, but we're not going to design based on cost. We're going to design based on needs, and that design may include smaller buses, for one. I mean, we're getting all these large, very old, but well-maintained buses from City and County of Honolulu, but we have a lot of large buses rolling down the road half empty or even less than that, and that's not a cost-effective way to run a public transit system. So, we really need to get to the public outreach part of this. Determine what the needs are and how that mass transit system is going to look like, design it, and then cost it out, and then determine if there are elements that we cannot afford, that we have to draw back on. This is not going to happen overnight. We need a five-year implementation plan. But we need to do it right, and we need to plan for the rural communities first and foremost, including K5'u and Puna and Hamakua and even Kohala, because it's the rural communities that are the hardest hit by the transportation challenges on the Big Island, so we really need to focus on that. I'm not really hearing that, so I'm just stating these things that need to be considered as we move forward. You're talking about changing tires out on the highway. Why can't we have a mobile mechanic unit? Why do we have to try to toggle together partnerships around the island? I think there are, maybe, other ways to approach this, and we need to consider all those smart ideas and put together a system that really, really works for the needs on the Big Island. Cost will come second. We need to first design the system that works for us. So, I just want to put that out there. Yes, the position is being filled. Currently, I thinkI don't know if it's closed yet on the HR website, but I do know there are other applicants there besides Page 15 PSMTC-3 July 17, 2017 yourself, so this is a competitive position, and I do hope that whoever gets hired will be able to find an organized way to not only work with the existing Mass Transit facility, the existing Mass Transit mechanics, but also understand the needs of our island with regard to mass transit and start delivering, or start planning out, a system that really works for us. Secondly, I had some questions that came up when you were talking about your partnership with HCC, which is a great idea, that's Hawaii Community College, but I do have concerns. We have kind of patched this whole mass transit system together, because we have been utilizing contracts with the tour companies. It is my understanding that none of the County buses are driven by County workers. All of them are contracted, if I'm correct, and you can confirm that or not. So we never had County workers driving the buses, is that correct? MR. SHARP: That's true. MS. O'HARA: Okay, so we do have a lot of complaints about the behavior of the bus drivers, and it is problematic when that's a secondary company that's providing that service. I just see these things as very challenging, and we have to, as a Council, begin to debate what we are going to pay for in the way of quality service and what we aren't. So, I'm really anxious to see the overall master plan. I don't know what the time schedule is on that, but perhaps we can get some updates from SSFM as to how that process is unfolding. But one thing I want you to keep in mind, is that when we did approve the fuel tax increase, a lot of that was dependent on being able to see a real, for me anyway, being able to see a real mass transit system come to reality on the Big Island; and if we don't have a plan that's going to get us where we ne need to go within the next nine months, then the Council is going to be looking at the future increases very seriously. So, I just want to put that all in perspective, because I'm really concerned that we don't have a real bus plan in place that is "need driven" rather than "equipment driven." Thank you. CHR. RUGGLES: Are there any questions for Mr. Sharp? Any other comments? Okay, seeing or hearing none, Mr. Sharp, I just want to thank you again for bringing us all up to date on the status of Mass Transit. It's very important to all of our districts, as we very well iterated here. I do have a couple of questions. The first is that we referred to the master plan, I was wondering if you had an idea on the timeframe of when the community input process will begin? MR. SHARP: I was going to respond on the previous statements. In fact, I was just in touch with SSFM on Saturday, yeah, by their president, in terms of that plan and in terms of them helping us out with the routes and the bus LD.'s. We're Page 16 PSMTC-3 July 17, 2017 meeting, hopefully, on Wednesday or Thursday this week to follow through on that, yeah. It's not like I haven't paid them any attention. CHR. RUGGLES: Okay, would you like a moment to respond to Ms. O'Hara before I continue? MR. SHARP: No, it's okay. It's alright. It's alright. Thank you. CHR. RUGGLES: Okay. At this point, the community input part, would that be the opportunity to discuss the route adjustments that our constituents have been alluding to? MR. SHARP: Yes. Yes, yeah. CHR. RUGGLES: Great. Yeah, because I know we have, I mean, we had a lot of great ideas come out in our public meeting. MR. SHARP: I know that, yeah. CHR. RUGGLES: I think there are a lot of good ideas out there, creating a more effective and efficient route system. MR. SHARP: Um-hmm. CHR. RUGGLES: I also just want to say that I really applaud your efforts and your passion for improving it. I also understand that the maintenance aspect, on how important that is and crucial that we emphasize that, is because that is going to be the foundation of these— MR. SHARP: I know. CHR. RUGGLES: —of everything we do. We need a maintenance schedule. We need good buses that we can count on, because if we don't have that, then we can't plan for anything else. I'm really excited about the app and the website. Thank you for bringing that up. MR. SHARP: Yep, yep. CHR. RUGGLES: I think that's also really important. And bringing things up with the engine installations, the primary hub ideas, and bringing the services closer to where they are serving. MR. SHARP: Right. I wish I could do it faster. Page 17 PSMTC-3 July 17, 2017 CHR. RUGGLES: Yeah, and I understand, also, the need for more mechanics. You mentioned an inventory manager. Do we currently not have one? MR. SHARP: No, we don't. We don't have any inventory. There is no inventory. So I will—if I'm brought back in, I will assume that position and setting it up, et cetera. CHR. RUGGLES: Okay, yeah. And I just want to reiterate, like what my colleague have said, this is a really vitally important service that we provide, and it is becoming more important every year, especially because we have a big, aging population. They're going to be very reliant on our public transportation. It's really meant to help those who are the most disadvantaged, our kupuna and our keiki and our working families who have hit a spell of bad luck, so I want to make sure that we're able to provide a basis of a safety net with our public transportation system. So, I really appreciate you taking the time to get us up to speed on what you've been working on and our plan, and I'm looking forward to getting future updates and working with you. MR. SHARP: Okay. Alright. CHR. RUGGLES: Please let all of us know if there's something we can do to support. MR. SHARP: Yeah. Well, can I just ask everybody one question, from me? In terms of the cost, how do you want me to approach that? CHR. RUGGLES: Does anyone have any comments? MR. SHARP: Do you want a wish list? Because I have one. CHR. RUGGLES: Ms. Lee Loy, did you want to comment on that? MS. LEE LOY: Yeah. Thank you, Chair. Mr. Sharp, I think what you heard today was a number of opportunities for you to capitalize on. I must agree with Mr. Chung and Ms. O'Hara, and even Ms. Ruggles, this is a system that we have to build from the ground up, and at the end of the day, our duty is to serve community. It would be ideal to look at a system that meets our rural routes, and then connects to more city routes. I am not a transportation engineer. I can only begin to imagine all the different timing elements that have to happen. But you mentioned you have a number of friends who are helping. SSFM, which I completely trust. They do good work. Page 18 PSMTC-3 July 17, 2017 You mentioned you have some background—and you have people in that department that have been doing it for the last 30 years. You have a number of resources available to you, which then flips it back on us. If that's the system that's going to be driven by community, then we as a Council then understand how to fiscally plan for that. Now, you might have some great ideas. There's others out there with the apps., other ways to be efficient, all those things will fall into place. But creating a system that doesn't work and then asking for money, it's not going to happen. MR. SHARP: I wouldn't do something like that, it would be crazy. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah. So if anything, maybe this was just more of an exercise of hearing everybody out and recognizing some other avenues that you have to explore a little more in depth. MR. SHARP: Okay. MS. LEE LOY: I'll yield with that. I know Mr. Richards has some thoughts, too. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. Yes, Mr. Sharp, in part it is a wish list. But, again, echoing my fellow Council Members, I think we have to start with the principal of what we want to accomplish, which is moving the right people to the right destination at the right time. MR. SHARP: Exactly. MR. RICHARDS: It's been my understanding that we've been moving the right people at the wrong time for a lot of things, when it comes to jobs down the hotel, things like that. So, then, we have to start with the premise of what we want to accomplish. And then, I echo Councilwoman O'Hara's comment about in the country. Got to figure how to get the country, then get them to the higher density, use the term "city," but the higher density where we're trying to get these people to, and develop the program around those concepts. And then, with that, we'll start seeing the need for the scheduling and the need for the maintenance, because that will all be dictated in all of that. So, in part, it is a wish list. So if you ran the circus, what would you want? How would you like to make this work? When we have that, and again I agree with Councilwoman O'Hara's, then we figure out how much all that would cost, and then that's where we come in and try and figure out how to fund that or what we can afford to get that done. Page 19 PSMTC-3 Vote on Comm. 330 Filed July 17, 2017 But, yeah, retooling from the get -go, not trying to band-aid on band-aid. Try and fix it from the ground up. So, that's what I'm looking for. Thank you. MR. SHARP: Yep. Okay, thank you. CHR. RUGGLES: Great. Thank you. Are there any other comments? Okay, with that, all those in favor of filing Communication 330 please say "aye." The motion to close file on Comm. 330 and all related communications was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Eoff, Kanuha, Lee Loy, O'Hara, Richards, and Chair Ruggles - 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Poindexter - 1. Excused: None. ORDER OF The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, RESOLUTIONS: Order of Resolutions. (There were none.) BILLS FOR The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, ORDINANCES: Bills for Ordinances. (There were none.) CHR. RUGGLES: May I have a motion to adjourn? Thank you. MR. SHARP: Thank you, all. Thank you, all. Page 20 PSMTC-3 July 17, 2017 ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 3:05 p.m., Ms. Lee Loy moved to adjourn MENT: the meeting. Seconded by Ms. David and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Eoff, Kanuha, Lee Loy, O'Hara, Richards, and Chair Ruggles - 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Poindexter- 1. Excused: None. CHR. RUGGLES: We are adjourned. Approved: 1116/ 17 Miennifer Ruggles, Chair (Date) Pu, is Safety and Mass Transit Committee JR/na Page 21